ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Venezuelan-owned oil company will warm
12,000 rural Alaska homes this winter with an enormous gift of
heating fuel that some elated residents in the bush call a godsend
- and ironic.

The donation from Houston-based
Citgo will buy 100 gallons of fuel for every household in 151
villages. But the gift worth roughly $5 million comes courtesy
of a country whose leftist president is pals with America's enemies
and supports Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Hugo Chavez also calls our
president mean things, such as "genocidal murderer"
and "madman."

Margaret Williams, of the remote
town Hughes, said it doesn't matter who's providing the heating
fuel, which costs about $6 a gallon in the Koyukuk River village
of 69.

"We sure could welcome
it," she said. "As long as we don't have to pay."

In the Kobuk River village
of Ambler, heating fuel is running more than $7 a gallon.

Residents in the village of
283 and surrounding villages are ecstatic, said tribal administrator
Virginia Commack. "It's a miracle," she said.

Each household will save more
than $700 in fuel costs this winter, freeing cash for people
to spend on gasoline so they can hunt more caribou and moose,
she said.

The donation will especially
help the elderly, who live on fixed incomes and can't travel
to gather wood, she said.

Daniel Ellanak, a Navy veteran
who works for the tribal government on Ouzinkie near Kodiak Island,
is inadvertently responsible for the gift, which could provide
a couple of months of heating fuel for many homes.

In May, he gave a presentation
at a tribal environmental conference near San Diego that touched
on village fuel woes, he said.

A representative of Citgo,
an oil refiner owned by Venezuela's national oil company, was
in the audience and approached him. He told Ellanak about the
company's effort to provide fuel to poor people and offered to
help Alaskans.

"His point was big oil
is not without compassion," said Ellanak.

Ellanak is torn between the
good fortune for struggling villagers and Chavez's possible political
gamesmanship.

The other day, "I was
watching the ticker tape on the news and Hugo Chavez was partnering
with Iran and I was like 'Oh my god,' " he said.

Experts on Latin American policy
are divided over whether the gift is genuine generosity or a
political ploy meant to bring Chavez more support on the world
stage.

The program began last year
after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and Chavez toured
poor neighborhoods in the Bronx, said David McCollum, Citgo spokesman

"He wanted us to do everything
we could to assist people," said McCollum, reached in Houston.

Last year, Citgo sold 40 million
gallons of heating fuel - with a 40 percent discount off the
wholesale price - to households in states along the East Coast,
he said.

Now, Chavez wants to help out
Alaska Natives and tribes in the Northwest, he said.

Abraham Lowenthal, an international
relations professor at the University of Southern California,
said Chavez is "trying to show up the U.S. government and
the Bush administration for not being as responsive to the needs
of American citizens as Venezuela can be."

By doing so, Chavez gains support
from countries that don't like Bush or his policies, Lowenthal
said.

Chavez, who sits on one of
the world's largest oil reserves, has also turned his "petro-dollar
windfall" into humanitarian programs in several Latin American
countries, Lowenthal said.

He wants those countries to
support Venezuela's bid to gain a seat on the United Nations
Security Council, and thereby increase its influence, he said.

Larry Birns, director of the
Washington, D.C.-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said Chavez
is just being generous.

"He feels that nations
with wealth have an implicit responsibility to help their neighbors
and maybe those Alaska oil companies will get the same idea,"
Birns said.

Venezuela's U.S. ambassador
in Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment this week.

Most rural residents don't
care about the politics, said Steve Sumida, acting director of
the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. They just want to stay warm
this winter, he said.

The council, a nonprofit representing
Alaska's tribal governments, agreed to spearhead the program
in Alaska with help from regional Native nonprofits. The money
is intended to buy oil and all help has been volunteer.

Sumida hopes the program will
begin Nov. 1, with nonprofits receiving Citgo money and buying
fuel for villages with more than 80 percent Alaska Native populations,
he said.

Diesel-powered communities
have struggled to keep their lights on, Sumida said. Fuel is
shipped to most bush communities by barge or plane, which greatly
increases the costs.